In Memoriam John Neubauer
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Vivian Liska
It is with great sadness that we take leave from our colleague and friend John Neubauer, who passed away in Amsterdam on October 5th, 2015. John was a devoted editor of arcadia for several decades, first with Jürgen Wertheimer, then with Vivian and, in the past two years, with both of us. He was professor of literature at the University of Amsterdam from 1983 to 2003. Before that he taught at Princeton and Pittsburgh and was a guest professor and researcher at numerous prestigious universities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He was an outstanding comparatist, a scholar of literary culture, of music and literature and one of the world’s foremost experts on the literature and culture of Central Eastern Europe.
His books and articles, his many lectures and talks delivered in many parts of the world demonstrated time and again how an astutely critical and lucid mind can also be infused with passion: for literature, for theoretical reflection, for conversation about books, thought, ethics and politics, music, and life tout court. His intellectual adventurousness, his enthusiasm inspired all those who knew him. Respect, fairness, generosity, and a lack of self-importance characterized his attitude towards colleagues, friends, and students. He had strong opinions, yet always remained open to the thoughts and views of others, delighting in discussion and always ready to revise and reconsider his judgments. When there was disagreement, he fiercely defended his position and then wisely sought compromise. But when he was faced with unfair behavior or abuse of power – whether in academia, politics, or private experiences – he was uncompromising and fought tirelessly for anyone he felt had been slighted, even at the price of personal advantages.
His exemplary approach of combining meticulous attention to details of literary texts with a broad understanding of historical, political, and social contexts revealed the driving force of his work: bringing out the potential of literature to oppose discourses of manipulative power and opening up possibilities of resistance and sites of freedom paired with ethical and political responsibility. His critical œuvre includes true milestones. His work on Central Eastern European literature not only challenged received views but revised the map of an entire region. His book on Voice, Text and Music (The Persistence of Voice), which he succeeded to finish in the last weeks of his life, is a true masterpiece that enwraps a deep love of music with the rigors and incisiveness of authentic scholarly research and reflection.
As editor of arcadia, John’s way of dealing with articles sent to the journal was rare and exemplary. He attracted papers from all over the world, from Iran and China, from Pakistan and Egypt. They were often written in weak English. He devoted countless hours and days polishing them so that they could enter the scholarly conversation at the highest level. That is how we will remember him: strong and gentle, generous and fair, charming and fierce, full of wisdom, yet carrying through life this boyish smile and the rare and precious quality that Walter Benjamin called “Herzenshöflichkeit” – politeness of the heart.
The contributors, readers and last but not least we, the co-editors of arcadia benefited immensely from his generosity, his intelligence, and his commitment. The following text is the plenary lecture John Neubauer gave at the 3rd Cognitive Futures in the Humanities conference in Oxford on April 14th, 2015. We are grateful that John gave us the permission to publish this text in arcadia as a lasting sign of his commitment to the journal. We will miss him dearly.
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- In Memoriam John Neubauer
- Recent Theories and Debates about Evolution and the Arts: A Critical Review
- The Changing Vocabulary of Literature: On the Migration and Transformation of Literary Concepts in Europe 1900–1950 (Part 2)
- Life as Art, Art as Life, and Life’s Art: the ‘Living Poetics’ of Italian Modernism
- Literaturrevolution in Continental Jewish Aesthetics
- « Nous »!
- Contributions
- Uri Zvi Grinbergs Auseinandersetzung mit Rainer Maria Rilkes Cornet
- Blanchot’s Windows
- Exil als Ort einer europäischen Literatur?
- „Nah ist / Und schwer zu fassen der Gott“: Einige Bemerkungen zu Liu Haomings Übersetzung der späten Gedichte Hölderlins
- Reviews
- Julia Bodenburg: Tier und Mensch. Zur Disposition des Humanen und Animalischen in Literatur, Philosophie und Kultur um 2000. Freiburg i. Br., Berlin und Wien: Rombach, 2012 (Rombach Wissenschaften. Reihe Litterae. Hgg. Gerhard Neumann, Günter Schnitzler und Maximilian Bergengruen. Bd. 183). 432 Seiten.
- Marc-Mathieu Münch, La Beauté artistique. L’impossible définition indispensable. Prolégomènes pour une ‚artologie‘ future. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2014. 156 S.
- Kirsten von Hagen: Telefonfiktionen. Spielformen fernmündlicher Kommunikation. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2015. 299 Seiten.
- Andrea Bartl und Martin Kraus, Hgg.: Skandalautoren. Zu repräsentativen Mustern literarischer Provokation und Aufsehen erregender Autorinszenierung. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2014. 2 Bde. 978 S.
- Light within the Shade. Eight Hundred Years of Hungarian Poetry. Eds., transl. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2014. 278 pp.
- Christian Moser, Linda Simonis, Hgg. Figuren des Globalen: Weltbezug und Welterzeugung in Literatur, Kunst und Medien. Göttingen: Bonn UP bei V&R unipress. 743 S., 21 Abb.
- Vincent Sherry: Modernism and the Reinvention of Decadence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2015. 346 pp.
- sêma. Wendepunkte der Philologie. Eds. Joachim Harst and Kristina Mendicino. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2013. 268 pp.
- Annette Gilbert, Hg. REPRINT. appropriation (&) literature. Berlin: Luxbooks, 2014. 580 S.
- Shang Biwu: Contemporary Western Narratology: Postclassical Perspectives. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 2013. 293 pp. 《当代西方后经典叙事学研究》 出版社:北京:人民文学出版社有限公司.
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- In Memoriam John Neubauer
- Recent Theories and Debates about Evolution and the Arts: A Critical Review
- The Changing Vocabulary of Literature: On the Migration and Transformation of Literary Concepts in Europe 1900–1950 (Part 2)
- Life as Art, Art as Life, and Life’s Art: the ‘Living Poetics’ of Italian Modernism
- Literaturrevolution in Continental Jewish Aesthetics
- « Nous »!
- Contributions
- Uri Zvi Grinbergs Auseinandersetzung mit Rainer Maria Rilkes Cornet
- Blanchot’s Windows
- Exil als Ort einer europäischen Literatur?
- „Nah ist / Und schwer zu fassen der Gott“: Einige Bemerkungen zu Liu Haomings Übersetzung der späten Gedichte Hölderlins
- Reviews
- Julia Bodenburg: Tier und Mensch. Zur Disposition des Humanen und Animalischen in Literatur, Philosophie und Kultur um 2000. Freiburg i. Br., Berlin und Wien: Rombach, 2012 (Rombach Wissenschaften. Reihe Litterae. Hgg. Gerhard Neumann, Günter Schnitzler und Maximilian Bergengruen. Bd. 183). 432 Seiten.
- Marc-Mathieu Münch, La Beauté artistique. L’impossible définition indispensable. Prolégomènes pour une ‚artologie‘ future. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2014. 156 S.
- Kirsten von Hagen: Telefonfiktionen. Spielformen fernmündlicher Kommunikation. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2015. 299 Seiten.
- Andrea Bartl und Martin Kraus, Hgg.: Skandalautoren. Zu repräsentativen Mustern literarischer Provokation und Aufsehen erregender Autorinszenierung. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2014. 2 Bde. 978 S.
- Light within the Shade. Eight Hundred Years of Hungarian Poetry. Eds., transl. Zsuzsanna Ozsváth and Frederick Turner. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2014. 278 pp.
- Christian Moser, Linda Simonis, Hgg. Figuren des Globalen: Weltbezug und Welterzeugung in Literatur, Kunst und Medien. Göttingen: Bonn UP bei V&R unipress. 743 S., 21 Abb.
- Vincent Sherry: Modernism and the Reinvention of Decadence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2015. 346 pp.
- sêma. Wendepunkte der Philologie. Eds. Joachim Harst and Kristina Mendicino. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2013. 268 pp.
- Annette Gilbert, Hg. REPRINT. appropriation (&) literature. Berlin: Luxbooks, 2014. 580 S.
- Shang Biwu: Contemporary Western Narratology: Postclassical Perspectives. Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 2013. 293 pp. 《当代西方后经典叙事学研究》 出版社:北京:人民文学出版社有限公司.